He fancies himself an actor, but he’s far
from gifted, and she teases him about that.”
In coping with the two suitors,
Fleming notes, “Madeleine keeps them
at arm’s length, but she does it with real
charm.” She suggests to Flamand and
Olivier that, rather than debating whether
words are superior to music, they unite
by writing an opera together. Fleming’s
feeling is that “what she really loves is
being a
muse
to the art form of opera, and
encouraging this poet and this musician
to do their best work.” American tenor
William Burden portrays Flamand, and
Norwegian baritone Audun Iversen makes
his Lyric debut as Olivier.
After playing her suitors o each
other all evening, Madeleine attempts to
understand her feelings in the 20-minute
nale, the epitome of dazzlingly lyrical
Strauss. “I’m astounded by that scene,”
confesses Fleming. “In the most ravishing
music imaginable, you feel her intelligence,
her uncertainty and her sincerity as she
looks inward, trying to choose between
the two young men who love her.”
Fleming doesn’t have a favorite
moment of that nal scene (“It’s
all
exquisitely beautiful”), although she loves
the climax, when Madeleine asks herself,
“Will you burn between two res?” In the
end, when forced to choose between the
men who love her, “I think she decides
not to decide,” the soprano concludes,
remembering her last line in the opera:
“Is there any choice that isn’t trivial?” e
audience can draw its own conclusion, but
“my feeling is that Strauss has the nal
say,” says Fleming. “ e opera ends with
a horn solo. Strauss’s father was a horn
player. It was an instrument the composer
loved throughout his career. So I think he’s
saying, with that instrumental solo, ‘I get
the last word, and the answer is music.’”
Lyric Opera presentation generously made
possible by an A
D , M .
M . J. T
H , N
W. K
, and M
J
L
.
Production owned by the Metropolitan Opera.
WILLIAM BURDEN
PH: DAN REST
PH: KEN HOWARD METROPOLITAN OPERA
Hear more
from the
Countess in this video preview
with Renée Fleming:
lyricopera.org/InsideCapriccio
PH: MATS BACKER
PH: MONIKA RITTERHAUS
ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER
BO SKOVHUS
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